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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

31 Days of Halloween Day 23: Martyrs

An appreciation by Bob Ignizio

15 years ago a little girl escaped from
an abandoned slaughterhouse where she had been chained to a chair and
tortured. Now grown up, Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï) calls her only
friend Anna (Morjana Alaoui) and says that she has tracked down her
tormentors, a seemingly ordinary upper middle class family living in
a nice home. Could these really be the people who tortured Lucie, or
has she gone mad? Neither Anna nor the audience is sure. Still,
Anna decides to stand by her friend, a decision that will ultimately
take her on a journey of both horror and transcendence.

Writer/director Pascal Laugier has made
one of the most uncompromising and original horror films in years in
MARTYRS. He knows all the conventions of the horror genre and
plays with them masterfully. Just when you think you know where
MARTYRS is going,
Laugier pulls the rug out from under you. The carefully conceived
look of the film and its serious tone are obviously influenced by
European horror films of the seventies and eighties, but Laugier
never wears his influences on his sleeve or descends into trite
homage. Rather, this is a wholly original film that channels the
spirit of its influences into something relevant and contemporary.

That MARTYRS
uses extreme violence and brutality to realize its vision will
no doubt offend and disgust many viewers. Therefore it cannot be
stressed strongly enough that if you are bothered by graphic depictions of violence,
you should not watch this movie. Those who can get past that will
find an intelligent and expertly made film that is surprisingly
poignant in its own strange way. Part of the wave of horror movies
pouring out of France in recent years, MARTYRS
isn’t just a great horror movie – it’s a great movie, period.